Chapter 8 - The Tunnel Beneath the Mansion
The Director reacted instantly.
"No one leaves."
Four officers surrounded Nathan.
Four more stood beside Celeste.
The guests remained frozen.
Nathan's wife quietly stepped beside the Director.
"I want to see the tunnel."
Nathan looked at her in disbelief.
"You already know what's down there."
She met his eyes.
"No."
"I only know what's supposed to be down there."
Those words unsettled the Director.
"You've never entered it?"
She shook her head.
"I designed the escape route."
"Your father changed it after construction."
Nathan remained silent.
He remembered.
His father had ordered the builders replaced halfway through the project.
No explanations.
No records.
The Director motioned forward.
Within minutes, a team descended through the hidden elevator.
The air beneath the mansion was damp and cold.
Concrete walls stretched into darkness.
Emergency lights flickered weakly.
The smell of earth mixed with rusted metal.
Then...
They reached the body.
A middle-aged man lay face down beside an iron security door.
His hand still clutched an expensive flashlight.
The Director knelt beside him.
"No gunshot."
"No stab wound."
"No obvious injuries."
The medical examiner frowned.
"Heart failure?"
Nathan stared at the dead man's wrist.
The watch.
It really was Adrian Wolfe's.
But the man...
Wasn't Adrian.
Nathan whispered,
"I've never seen him."
The Director looked toward the examiner.
"Identity?"
The examiner opened the dead man's wallet.
Everyone leaned closer.
Inside...
There was no driver's license.
No cash.
Only one faded photograph.
Nathan's wife picked it up.
It showed three smiling people.
Adrian Wolfe.
A young woman.
And...
Nathan's father.
Standing together with their arms around each other.
Friends.
Not enemies.
Nathan stared at the image.
"My father knew Adrian..."
The Director quietly answered,
"They were more than friends."
"What were they?"
The Director looked at the photograph one last time.
"Partners."
Before anyone could speak again...
A metallic sound echoed through the tunnel.
Click.
Every flashlight turned toward the iron security door.
It had unlocked itself.
May you like
Slowly...
The heavy door began opening from the inside.
